Neemias Queta had played 54 career games across four NBA seasons before receiving his first NBA start with the Celtics on Monday night against the Hawks. Joe Mazzulla has liked to go with double bigs alongside Al Horford when a regular starter is sidelined this year and Luke Kornet was the choice to fill that spot. However, the Celtics coaching staff opted for a switching defensive strategy against Trae Young and company in Atlanta, making Queta a better candidate than Kornet for that tactic.
Queta was more than up for the task, playing terrific minutes alongside Horford as a complementary piece in Boston’s 123-93 blowout win. The seven-footer finished with 10 points, 7 rebounds, a block and a steal in his 23 minutes and tied a team-high with +31.
The productive night caps what may be a season-changing road trip for Queta. After starting the year as the team’s fourth string center behind Horford, Kornet and Xavier Tillman, Queta has emerged as an appealing weapon for Mazzulla ever since Wednesday’s near comeback win against the Pacers. Queta fueled that rally with his fourth quarter play and his consistency has been stellar in Boston’s last four games.
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He’s averaging 8.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per game over that stretch while playing 21 minutes a night amid Boston’s three-game winning streak. More importantly, he’s earning the trust of his coach who praised the fourth-year big man after another positive performance.
“He’s grown a lot as a player and quite honestly he doesn’t know how good he can be,” Mazzulla told reporters in Atlanta. “He’s got a great ceiling and so the standard is very high and I thought he did some great things for us tonight.”
The transformation of Queta into a rotation-caliber player changes a lot of things for the Celtics in the big picture. In the short term, it helps them take some wear and tear off Al Horford (22 minutes) even with Kristaps Porzingis out of the lineup. Horford sustaining a lighter workload with the Celtics’ maintaining excellence in the standings is a huge deal. Queta is providing a different dimension (more rebounding, athleticism) than Kornet and Tillman provide, creating a three-headed monster at backup center that Mazzulla can mix and match with.
The future could be brighter for Queta as well in the mind of Mazzulla if he can maintain this level of consistency.
“When you’re as good as he could be, we all got to hold him to that standard every single night,” Mazzulla said. “It’s a credit to them for allowing us to coach him, it’s a credit to the guys for supporting him. You see what he’s capable of when he’s at his best and he could be a real asset for us.
“He works really hard, he cares, he wants to be coached. I’m grateful he allows me to coach him. He’s starting to realize how good he can be and he’s working at it.”
The Celtics return home now after a successful 3-1 road trip but they may have found something bigger than those wins on the trip if Queta’s play proves to be more than a flash in the pan.
